Operations

Attorneys General Vow to Fight Emissions Easing By Trump

June 12, 2017
• by Staff

Photo via Wikimedia.

A coalition of 13 state attorneys general led by New York's Eric Schneiderman has told the Trump administration that it could expect a "vigorous" legal challenge to any attempt to weaken pollution standards for light-duty vehicles.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection also signed a letter that the state attorneys sent to Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency's administrator. The group said they would oppose any attempt to weaken emissions standards for the model years 2022 to 2025, the group announced.

In March, President Trump promised to reopen a federal review of fuel economy standards that was concluded in the final days of the Obama administration. Automakers had asked Trump to reopen the mid-term review in February.

In their letter, the coalition said it strongly disagrees with Pruitt's contention that the mid-term evaluation process was flawed and provided a point-by-point rebuttal of the administrator's criticisms.

A move by the White House to roll back automobile fuel-efficiency targets set by the Obama administration and to challenge the right of California and other states to set stricter tailpipe emission rules faces an uphill climb.

After a court challenge stymied its efforts to give makers of glider kits a reprieve from challenged provisions of its greenhouse gas regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn an order to not enforce those regulations against small manufacturers of glider kits.

A federal court has granted a temporary stay that suspends the decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to not enforce for 2018 and 2019 a 300-unit production cap put in place on the manufacture of glider kits/vehicles that do not comply with Phase 2 GHG emission rules.